Refining Nature: Standard Oil and the Limits of Efficiency

by Jon Wlasiuk

The Standard Oil Company emerged out of obscurity in the 1860s to capture 90 percent of the petroleum refining industry in the United States during the Gilded Age. John D. Rockefeller, the company's founder, organized the company around an almost religious dedication to principles of efficiency. Economic success masked the dark side of efficiency as Standard Oil dumped oil waste into public waterways, filled the urban atmosphere with acrid smoke,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822965208
• ISBN13: 9780822965206
• Release Date: November 2017
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"